Page 1 of The Call of Crimson (The Crimson & Shadows #2)

Hello sweethearts, Elijah here. Breyla’s insisting that we need a recap of our previous shit show—I mean story—to remind everyone what the hell happened.

Our last adventure began with the untimely (and suspicious) death of King Raynor.

That’s not nearly enough drama for Breyla to come home and see me, but the ghost of her dead father sure did the trick!

When she arrived home, it was to the announcement of her mother’s betrothal to her long-time nemesis, Lord Aurelius.

She’s never gotten along with him (don’t ask me why, I’ve never understood her hatred for him), but it didn’t help that he’s also her late father’s adopted brother. Can you say daddy issues?

Weeks pass, and nothing happens until one night we’re playing cards and getting wine drunk in Breyla’s room.

Well, I’m playing cards, she’s mostly getting drunk.

Eventually, we pass out, and she’s woken up by her father’s ghost. He tells her he was murdered.

*le gasp* He claims it was none other than…

HIS brOTHER. Weirdly enough, his ghost appears to Aurelius, claiming that he was murdered by Lord Seamus.

Strange that not many people caught that or questioned the ghost at this point.

Anyway, it sets the Breyla and Aurelius on a collision course in their quests to avenge Raynor’s murder.

Breyla pretends to be drunk and mad with grief for a while—that was interesting.

Lord Aurelius uses his Hemonia Gift to see right through the bullshit and tries to call her on it.

They butt heads for a while until Aurelius pulls rank on Breyla.

He commands her second and third-in-command to return to the capital, thus pissing her off and forcing her to show her true colors to him.

This is also the part where Aurelius uses his Gift to calm her temper in the middle of a fight, then shows her exactly what he can do with his power *wink wink. *

Things get complicated when people start trying to kill them both.

Someone poisons Aurelius’ eggs, but a maid ends up dead instead.

Then someone drugs Breyla’s wine and attacks her in her sleep.

Aurelius finds Breyla and sends her maid, Lyla, to fetch the court physician.

Instead, she comes back with Lady Ophelia who, as it turns out, can heal people?

The castle spent years believing she was magicless, turns out she’s scary powerful.

But in a hot way.

We weren’t totally sure if we could trust Ophelia before this, but we definitely were now. Aurelius and Breyla reluctantly agree to become allies since someone is obviously coming for them both. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, or something like that.

Right after that, someone slits Commander Nolan’s throat, and everyone is devastated.

He was like a second father to Breyla and well-loved by all.

After his funeral, Aurelius corners Breyla and makes it clear he thinks it’s stupid to invite Prince Ayden II of Prudia (the enemy kingdom) to the castle—something Breyla has already done by this point.

Breyla dispatches Julian to follow Lord Seamus because he’s acting suspicious, and nobody likes him.

As she’s working out some frustration, Aurelius shows up and helps her work out a different type of frustration (these two really could not be more obvious), and he leaves her pantless in the middle of the woods.

I find it hilarious when she has to come to me for help, but she disagrees.

We have a little heart-to-heart where I tell her she’s being ridiculous, then send her on her merry way the next morning.

Tensions are already high between Breyla and Aurelius when Ayden shows up to court just hours later. Kind of weird how quickly he arrives.

We know things are getting out of hand when someone sends Breyla a box with Julian’s head in it. Frankly, I think I forgot how to breathe.

The next day, Aurelius finds Breyla planning an engagement ball for her mother and him. He tells her she needs to actually grieve, and they have a big emotional blow-out where we learn that Breyla’s slipping control over her shadows is related to her compartmentalization of her emotions.

We have a ball, Breyla wears a fancy dress, but all I can look at is Ophelia. Breyla and Aurelius end up banging—finally—and all is right for about thirty seconds. Breyla has a dream where she’s doing the deed with Ayden, and we learn about his ability to infiltrate and manipulate dreams.

Breyla gets insecure about the fact that she’s sleeping with her mother’s fiancé, so he exposes their relationship to Genevieve to prove a point. She’s weirdly relieved but tells them they still need to keep it quiet.

The two lust-birds embark on a journey to recover Julian’s body and make a stop at her grandparents’ estate, where she gets a peek at Aurelius’ childhood with her father.

They meet a feisty female along the way, named Nameah, whom Breyla takes a liking to.

She leads them to Julian’s body, where they are attacked by a strange enemy.

Nameah is cut with a poisoned blade, and they have to rush back to Ciyoria in hopes that Ophelia can heal her, since Aurelius isn’t able to stop the poison.

While they’re gone, I get some steamy time with that stunning female, Ophelia, and let Jade punch me in the face. When Aurelius and Breyla return, we discover that not even Ophelia can heal the poison, leaving Nameah to die tragically.

After Julian’s and Nameah’s funeral, our little group gathers to discuss what comes next.

Ophelia and I break into her father’s study and find incriminating evidence while Breyla goes searching for answers in town.

She finds an entire family (remember that maid that died from eating Aurelius’ eggs?

Yeah, her family didn’t leave town like everyone thought), slaughtered in their beds.

This leads her to confront her old flame, the King of the Midnight Brotherhood, the local mercenary group.

Cillian insists he didn’t have anything to do with it, but it might be the work of rogue mercenaries.

Lastly, Breyla breaks into the room of Prince Ayden and finds letters linking him to Lord Seamus’ treachery. Which is not surprising, considering he’s had it out for her since King Raynor killed his father in battle several years ago.

Everything goes to shit when Breyla decides to expose Ayden and Seamus at dinner that night.

Ayden goes peacefully, which is suspicious, but we’re more concerned with Lord Seamus.

He’s livid and throwing accusations at his daughter, Ophelia.

He hurls a poisoned blade at her, but Layne steps in front of her, taking the hit himself.

He dies in her arms, and Ophelia snaps. Exposing her power to the entire room, she literally sucks the life out of her father and drops his withered corpse on the floor before passing out. Gods, she’s beautiful.

To make matters worse, Queen Genevieve decides now is the best time to admit that she is the one who murdered Raynor. But before we can ask any questions, she drinks poisoned wine.

As we’re all reeling from what’s just happened, Ayden reenters the room with a slow clap. Turns out he had nothing to do with any of the deaths he was accused of, but it seems like he knows who does. It’s all overshadowed by his confession that Aurelius is his brother and Breyla is his fiancée.

We’re left with a lot more questions, but that brings us to now. Now, it’s time to get some answers.